Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Governance and Child Safeguarding Issues in Scouting Ireland: Tusla and Scouting Ireland

Ms Linda Creamer:

Yes. We closed it at the time. There were not any more calls coming. We were talking to Scouting Ireland on Thursday. Our concern is about best practice. Individuals are ringing up about something that happened to them when they were young. They are quite traumatised by it and then there is all the media attention. It brings up a lot of emotional feelings. They ring Scouting Ireland's helpline. We are not saying that the team in Scouting Ireland is not able to do its job. We are not undermining them by any sense of the imagination but we are asking, in terms of the sensitivity of it, whether it is appropriate and transparent enough for Scouting Ireland to be providing the helpline.